


Two conmen and a pickpocket walk into a jewellery store...

by BubblyWashingMachine



Category: Ocean's Eleven Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Banter, Gen, Not much plot, literally just characters vibing and bantering about nothing which is my favourite genre, oh no slash but like... it's danny and rusty... you know how they are so i'm tagging it, otherhawk if you're reading this i love you, references to Baby Driver as if they take place in the same universe, rusty ryan is always eating, they don't but a girl can dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28702389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubblyWashingMachine/pseuds/BubblyWashingMachine
Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin.An unspecified amount of time after the events of Ocean's 13, Rusty and Danny just happen to run into Linus while casing a jewellery store, though it seems that the kid's there for a very different reason.
Relationships: Danny Ocean & Rusty Ryan, Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan
Comments: 10
Kudos: 44





	Two conmen and a pickpocket walk into a jewellery store...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [otherhawk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/otherhawk/gifts).



> I recently re-watched all the Ocean's movies, scrolled through every single Ocean's fic on AO3 all the way back to the start, and now I have... this.
> 
> Dedicating this fic to otherhawk because their fics are the best in the entire world and I've spent the past three days absorbing like multiple novels worth of Ocean's content from them. Absolutely amazing, I appreciate you so much.
> 
> For everyone who is subscribed to me for one of my various other fandoms I am sorry but here is another one! This February I plan on doing Febuwhump, all Umbrella Academy fics and all (hopefully) good, and I guess writing this was kind of a warm-up for that. 
> 
> If you're here because you're actually still in the Ocean's 11 fandom (wow, good for you!) then hello!! Um, I hope you like this :) 
> 
> Set probably after Ocean's 13 but before Ocean's 8.

“Think we should get ice-cream after this?”

“Are you asking? Because we _just_ had lunch.”

“No, it was rhetorical—" Rusty lifts his eyes from the case of overpriced emerald earrings, and finds himself staring at none other than Linus Caldwell loitering next to a collection of necklaces on the other side of the store.

He actually does a double take.

“Holy shit,” he says, drawing out the words around the lollipop in his mouth, and jabs his elbow in Danny’s side.

Danny takes a moment to frown at him, offended, before he glances over at the kid. They watch Linus peruse the selection, his face carefully blank. “Oh.” Rusty knows without looking that Danny’s eyebrows have jumped up.

“He looks—”

“Yeah.”

“Is he here for…?”

“He might be.”

“We would know if someone else was trying...” He pauses. “Wouldn’t we?”

“ _I_ wouldn’t know.”

“Sure. Because you’re _retired_.”

“Because I’m retired.”

(And that’s why Rusty is here doing recon, and Danny is also here, but very much Not Doing Recon. He’s not fooling anyone, and he’s barely trying – that’s why he’s playing at being Rusty’s damn shadow, casing a jewellery store that’s going to be far too easy to steal from for it to be any real fun, but at least it’s something to do, and it has air-conditioning. Privately, Rusty thinks Danny’s bored.)

Regardless, this is better than sitting in the hotel room eating Pringles in bed with Danny and Tess and complaining about the heat to Isabel over the phone.

Danny can’t help himself, anyway. “There’s always—”

“Nah, he—”

“—oh, yeah. Well, what about—”

“Could be.”

“But on the other hand—”

“Exactly.”

Which means Linus is here to browse, not here for a job, and he’s almost jealous. They fall into comfortable silence, pretending to want some rings, like Rusty isn’t already wearing multiple. Rusty turns his head, examines the kid in a mirror.

Linus is squinting at a bracelet, chewing that gum like always, and Rusty marvels at the fact that it must have been almost a year since he laid eyes on the kid in person. It’s funny – Rusty never has been sure of Linus’ age. It wouldn’t exactly be a hard piece of information to find, but it’s never come up and he doesn’t quite care. Looking at him now, in his expensive-looking black leather bomber jacket, sliding confidently around the shop with an easy, practiced kind of invisibility that one only develops from leading a certain lifestyle, Rusty thinks he doesn’t really look so young anymore.

He takes out the lollipop for a second and considers. “He reminds me of someone.”

Danny catches onto the half-formed thought hanging in the air like he always does, snapping his fingers. “Doc’s kid, right? With the –”

“Sunglasses,” Rusty agrees.

“And the—”

“Headphones.”

“Yeah. Wonder what happened to him.”

Rusty puts the lollipop back in, pointedly does not grin at the disgruntled employee clearly desperate to waltz over and chastise him for it, and says, “Prison.”

Danny lets out a laugh and without having to discuss it, the two of them start walking around to where Linus is standing with his back to them. Rusty enjoys the absolute silence of his shoes against the marble floors, and makes a mental note of it for future reference. Knowing Linus, however, he probably clocked them the second they walked in.

“Hi, Linus,” Danny says easily, smiling at the way the younger man startles and spins around.

“Holy – Jesus,” Linus splutters, flushing. His eyes are comically wide.

Danny just grins. “Nope. He’s sitting this one out.”

“You could warn a guy, you know?” Linus goes on dramatically, then swivels his head to look around the store and the employees, twitching. “Someone should put a bell on you two, I swear.”

“You didn’t know we were here?” Rusty frowns, knowing Linus can never tell when he’s joking, and that he cares far too much about Rusty’s opinion.

“What—of course I did,” Linus says, because of course he did, and suddenly with the flip of a switch, he seems less smooth criminal and more of a defensive, annoyable teenager again. “But the polite thing is—”

“Tell me, Linus, what brings a guy like you to this fine establishment?” Danny interrupts coolly. “You don’t strike me as the earrings type.”

As Linus pulls a face that suggests they all know what brings men _like them_ to a jewellery store, Rusty says, “You shopping for a special lady in your life, Linus?”

Impossibly, the kid goes red in the face again, the suave stranger evaporated, and Rusty finds some comfort in the fact that some things never change. “You know, I’d ask what you two were doing here,” he says in a huff just as predicted, “but I don’t think I need to. And for the record, it’s Mother’s Day next week.”

“Oh, Mother’s Day,” Danny drawls, wisely ignoring the first part of the statement, at the same time Rusty says;

“Of course.” Neither Danny nor Rusty have ever had much need to make note of the date.

Danny nods, despite thinking the same thing. “And how _is_ your mother?”

“She’s fine,” Linus says, suspicious, which is understandable. “She’s working a lot. I want to – to find her something nice, you know, show my appreciation, but I don’t know—” he breaks off, looking helpless. “She’s—”

“Discerning,” Rusty supplies, like he knows Linus’ mother – he just remembers that like her son, she always chewed that gum – and Linus looks like he might argue.

Danny distracts him with, “And are you?”

“What?”

“Working,” Rusty says.

“Oh,” Linus mutters, shuffling around. “Yeah – yeah, I’ve been working some. Family stuff, mostly.”

“That’s good, that’s good,” Danny says, smiling. “I bet your mom’s real proud.” Rusty almost covers his face with his palm. Jesus.

“Oh, well, I – I hope so.” Linus fiddles with his jacket, confused. He looks like he wants to ask them what they’re planning, and then thinks better of it.

Rusty glances at Danny. “Well, we better—”

“Places to be,” Danny agrees, and for a second Rusty really expects the incredibly frustrated Linus to roll his eyes.

“I guess you guys are still doing the telepathy thing,” he just says in the end, half-heartedly.

Rusty shrugs. “Want my advice, make her a card.” He points the now-bare lollipop stick at Linus, taking a step back. “Don’t just buy her a necklace or something.”

Danny makes a noise of agreement. “Put some heart into it, alright?”

“Heart,” Rusty emphasises.

Danny nods wisely, utterly full of shit. “Nothing says _I love my mom_ like—”

“-- a home-made card,” Rusty finishes.

The kid looks between them, and mutters, “How old do you think I _am_?”

On the very simple principle that Rusty doesn’t know how to answer that question, and that Danny thinks it’s funny to leave conversations hanging, they turn and go, and he catches Linus grinning absently at his shoes while they do. Once they’re out of the store, back in the sticky heat and getting annoyed at the sun, and they really should be relaying the information they – Rusty – was supposed to be collecting, he says, “So how old—”

“No idea.”

He breathes out, scrunches up his face in thought. “Gotta be at least twenty… five.”

“ _Gotta_ be.” But he’s not sure either.

It’s another four steps before –

“Son of a _bitch_ ,” Danny spits, freezing in place. Rusty pauses, waits, and his partner eventually glances at him, raising sheepish, empty palms. “The kid lifted my wallet.”

The stick drops from his lips onto the sidewalk. “You let – he took your –” Rusty can’t even finish, because he checks his own pocket, and the smile slips from his face. He looks up. “Son of a bitch.” _No offense to missus Caldwell,_ he thinks.

Danny barks a laugh, sharp and amused, and Rusty struggles not to see the funny side. “He’s gotten better.”

“He’s getting cocky,” Rusty corrects.

“He gets that from your side of the family.” There’s a smile in Danny’s voice.

They silently agree that there wasn’t anything important enough in their wallets to warrant the walk back and subsequent embarrassment, so they keep trudging, pride wounded, but not too wounded. They’ll get him back. They will. Ideas are already flitting through Rusty’s mind, and he’s – well, he’s excited.

“Three years ago…” Danny trails off, musing.

“Right? Who woulda guessed.”

“He has changed.”

“We haven’t.”

“We’re too old to change.”

“Oh, speak for yourself,” Rusty says dryly.

Linus is what he is, now, and they don’t have to say it out loud. Rusty chooses to believe that he’s proud of the kid, as if they had some hand in crafting him into the next, well, the next _them_ , which they definitely did - for better or worse.

“Do you think we’re bad influences?”

Danny hesitates, tilts his head. “Nah.”

They go and buy ice-cream with money from some harassed-looking businessman’s wallet, laugh and let it drip down their hands while they walk in the sun, and Rusty kinda feels like a seventeen-year-old again with the whole world at his fingertips. Everything tastes better when someone else is buying.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you liked it, and if there are still people in this community??


End file.
